UMAR JOHNSON HAS REDEEMED HIMSELF; SPECIAL ED IS LEGAL SEGREGATION

UMAR JOHNSON HAS REDEEMED HIMSELF; SPECIAL EDUCATION IS LEGAL SEGREGATION

DR JOHNSON HAS CHOSEN TO KEEP GOING AND NO LONGER WASTE TIME BEING DISTRACTED BY HATERS.

Sources: Breakfast Club 105.1, Black News, Youtube

A year ago I slammed Dr Umar Johnson after he allowed himself to be distracted and disgraced by a Stripper.

Today I offer my apologies as it is apparent Umar has redeemed himself and realigned himself with the divine assignment of helping educate BLACK parents about the dangers of Ritalin being prescribed to young children and Racial Segregation legally practiced in public school districts via Special Education programs.

****** Rethinking School Desegregation: Was It A Curse Or Cure For Black Male Students?

By Dr. Umar Johnson, Psy.D., CSP, M.Ed.

-- The year was 1954, the United States Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision stating that racism had no place in education. 

Although more of an empty symbol than a true legal mandate, at the time, many of the states, both northern and southern, refused to listen, knowing full well that neither the legislative or executive branches of government had no real intent of telling White Americans that the time had come for them to allow Black children to sit next to their own. 

However, such a refusal began to expose the American homeland as a hypocrite that enjoys telling foreigners how to treat their citizens while neglecting their own back home in North America. 

Slowly but surely, White reaction began to settle after passage of the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHCA), which formally gave birth to the United States' first federal special education law.

Although never documented in any educational law writings, special education was the panacea that gave calm to White school districts assuring them that they wouldn't have to truly integrate their schools, but only give the appearance of doing so. 

When forced busing policies really began to heat up, especially in northern states, in the late '60s and early '70s, white schools were able to get away with "cosmetic integration" policies that forced Black children, who rode in on cheese buses, to remain together for the entire school day. 

To outside observers, the school appeared integrated, but inside the building, it was business as usual. 

When community leaders began to push back against the "cosmetic integration" practices of principals and superintendents, coincidentally, special education was born. 

Now these very same racist public school officials had the ability to legitimize their "Separate But Equal" schooling by slave-stamping the cheese-bus-riding-Blacks with "learning disability" and "mental retardation" labels.

 This new program, federal special education, the legal right to segregate learning disability students, allegedly, for their own educational benefit, was just the weapon to fix the race problem. 

For the past 37 years special education has been used to hold in check the promises of the1954 Brown decision. 

Who has been the greatest victim of this modernized segregation policy disguised as special education? 

Clearly, Black boys have had to bear the greater portion of the burden for their communities forcing them to attend schools where they were not wanted. 

Had it not been for forced integration, special education may have never been created. 

Yes, children with true disabilities, like blindness & autism, would have had to receive the services they needed. 

Nonetheless, the use and abuse of the "Specific Learning Disability" classification, disproportionately applied to Black learners, wouldn't be half the problem that it is today for Black parents. 

In fact, the "Emotional & Behavioral Disturbance" classification, created specifically to castigate Black boys who refused to accept White Rule, would have never been manufactured out of thin air. 

The most interesting fact of the so-called school desegregation process is that it only focused on the desegregation of student populations, it never address desegregation of the teaching ranks. 

That's right, Black children today, as was the case in the '60s & '70s, are still almost exclusively taught by white educators. 

Why didn't the Supreme Court address the issue of desegregation within the teacher ranks? After all, isn't it only fair that if we are to expect Black children to be taught by White teachers, that White children should have to be taught by Black ones? 

Or better yet, wouldn't it be a benefit if Black children, attending racially hostile schools, can have the opportunity of being instructed by someone who looks like them – at least once in a while? 

The reason for the silent treatment surrounding teacher desegregation has to do with the White female control of the public school, and the quality of life opportunities that come with being an educator. 

Yes, despite the meager pay, there are some pretty good benefits to being a public school teacher: retirement, healthcare, summers off and year-round regular vacation days, are just a few. 

Add to that list that teachers, those who belong to unions, enjoy one of the greatest job security professions in the country - almost never being fired for failure to perform adequately on the job; not to mention that teachers have one of the highest fluid professions in the world - meaning finding a job after relocating to another city is usually not a problem at all, even amidst the current financial meltdown. 

Not to lose sight of the purpose of this article, the point that I am making is that the teaching profession is heavily guarded by political gatekeepers to ensure that the color of American education forever stays White – not purely for educational reasons, but for financial and employment reasons as well. 

One of the failures of the Black push to integrate schools was failure to ensure that the same process applied to teachers and principals. 

The other failure was not forcing any oversight provisions, nor putting any checks & balances in place, to ensure that special education wouldn't be used to override the Supreme Court promise of 1954, and the Civil Rights Bill of 1964. 

Special education has been, and continues to be, the iron fist of segregation cloaked in the velvet glove of a support system for disabled learners. 

One year before Congress approved "Special Re-Segregation," during 1974, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) would begin work on the DSM-III. Ultimately published in 1980, at the start of the CIA's Crack Cocaine war against the Black community - to dissipate revolutionary activity, the inclusion of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) into the DSM-III would justify the brain drugging of an entire generation of Black boys "for their own good," with drugs as toxic as the ones used to send their fathers to prison, even while then President Ronald Reagan was busying carrying out former President Nixon's so-called "War on Drugs." 

If you ask which weapon of mass destruction is worse, special education or ADHD, the answer would be to choose your own poison. 

It is no coincidence that these two "psycho-racial strategies" have their roots in the school desegregation efforts of the 1970s, and are at the top of the list in reference to what's wrong with public school in this country. 

Yes, Black public schools did lack some of the material resources of the White public schools.

 However, on the other hand, White schools lacked then, and now, some of the immaterial resources of the Black schools - namely love, commitment, fair play, and confidence that our children can learn. 

When it's all said and done, the Black community must ask itself, "Was school desegregation in the best interest of our children? Would it had been better if we continued to teach them ourselves?"

ZERO TOLERANCE: Public Schools Are Eliminating Disciplinary Policies Which Target BLACK & LATINO Students

#ZEROTOLERANCE

Public Schools across the nation are eliminating Racist "ZERO TOLERANCE" Disciplinary Policies which primarily target BLACK & LATINO Students anyway.

ARTICLE: "Seeing the Toll, Schools Revise Zero Tolerance"

Faced with mounting evidence that get-tough policies in schools are leading to arrest records, low academic achievement and high dropout rates that especially affect minority students, cities and school districts around the country are rethinking their approach to minor offenses.

Perhaps nowhere has the shift been more pronounced than in Broward County’s public schools. Two years ago, the school district achieved an ignominious Florida record: More students were arrested on school campuses here than in any other state district, the vast majority for misdemeanors like possessing marijuana or spraying graffiti.

The Florida district, the sixth largest in the nation, was far from an outlier. In the past two decades, schools around the country have seen suspensions, expulsions and arrests for minor nonviolent offenses climb together with the number of police officers stationed at schools. The policy, called zero tolerance, first grew out of the war on drugs in the 1990s and became more aggressive in the wake of school shootings like the one at Columbine High School in Colorado.

But in November, Broward veered in a different direction, joining other large school districts, including Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago and Denver, in backing away from the get-tough approach.

Rather than push children out of school, districts like Broward are now doing the opposite: choosing to keep lawbreaking students in school, away from trouble on the streets, and offering them counseling and other assistance aimed at changing behavior.

These alternative efforts are increasingly supported, sometimes even led, by state juvenile justice directors, judges and police officers.

In Broward, which had more than 1,000 arrests in the 2011 school year, the school district entered into a wide-ranging agreement last month with local law enforcement, the juvenile justice department and civil rights groups like the N.A.A.C.P. to overhaul its disciplinary policies and de-emphasize punishment.

Some states, prodded by parents and student groups, are similarly moving to change the laws; in 2009, Florida amended its laws to allow school administrators greater discretion in disciplining students.

“A knee-jerk reaction for minor offenses, suspending and expelling students, this is not the business we should be in,” said Robert W. Runcie, the Broward County Schools superintendent, who took the job in late 2011. “We are not accepting that we need to have hundreds of students getting arrested and getting records that impact their lifelong chances to get a job, go into the military, get financial aid.”

Nationwide, more than 70 percent of students involved in arrests or referrals to court are black or Hispanic, according to federal data.

“What you see is the beginning of a national trend here,” said Michael Thompson, the director of the Council of State Governments Justice Center. “Everybody recognizes right now that if we want to really find ways to close the achievement gap, we are really going to need to look at the huge number of kids being removed from school campuses who are not receiving any classroom time.”

Pressure to change has come from the Obama administration, too. Beginning in 2009, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education aggressively began to encourage schools to think twice before arresting and pushing children out of school. In some cases, as in Meridian, Miss., the federal government has sued to force change in schools.

Some view the shift as politically driven and worry that the pendulum may swing too far in the other direction. Ken Trump, a school security consultant, said that while existing policies are at times misused by school staffs and officers, the policies mostly work well, offering schools the right amount of discretion.

“It’s a political movement by civil rights organizations that have targeted school police,” Mr. Trump said. “If you politicize this on either side, it’s not going to help on the front lines.”

Supporters, though, emphasize the flexibility in these new policies and stress that they do not apply to students who commit felonies or pose a danger.

“We are not taking these tools out of the toolbox,” said Russell Skiba, a school psychology professor at Indiana University who promotes disciplinary changes. “We are saying these should be tools of last resort.”

In Broward County, the shift has shown immediate results, although it is too early to predict overall success. School-based arrests have dropped by 41 percent, and suspensions, which in 2011 added up to 87,000 out of 258,000 students, are down 66 percent from the same period in 2012, school data shows.

Under the new agreement, students caught for the first time committing any of 11 nonviolent misdemeanors are no longer arrested and sent to court. Rather, they attend counseling and perform community service.

Nor do students face suspension for minor infractions. Instead, they also attend a program called Promise for three days or more. Repeat offenders get several chances to change their behavior before more punitive measures kick in.

One recent afternoon, an 18-year-old senior sat in the cafeteria at the Pine Ridge Alternative Center, where students are sent in lieu of a suspension, and spoke with a family therapy graduate student on a counseling team. The girl had been caught with a small amount of marijuana in her car on her high school campus, a misdemeanor that would have led to a suspension or arrest in the past. It was the first time she had gotten in trouble at school.

“I was freaking out,” she said. Her first fear was that she would be barred from prom. Here, though, she saw the larger picture and came to view the incident as “her second chance.”

She learned about bullying and drugs and alcohol. “It was a slap in the face,” she said. “I don’t even want to smoke anymore.”

Other students here learn to manage their anger, if that is their issue. Parents are involved in the process. And counselors have helped identify problems at home including abusive situations, something that administrators said underscores how invaluable the counseling component has been for the Promise program, said Belinda Hope, the principal at Pine Ridge.

Mr. Runcie and others said the more punitive measures tended to make a bad situation worse. Suspended and expelled children would be home alone or on the street, falling behind academically. Those arrested could be stigmatized by criminal records.

“The data showed an increase in the harshness of the disciplinary practices in schools — what was once a trip to the principal’s office is now a trip to the jail cell,” said Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project, a civil-rights group involved in the effort.

Juvenile judges were among the first to express alarm over the jump in the number of students appearing in court on misdemeanors, an increase they said is tied to the proliferation of school police officers.

“We started to see the officers as a disciplinary tool,” said Judge Elijah H. Williams of Broward County Circuit Court, a juvenile judge who said he was “no flaming liberal” but saw the need for change.

“Somebody writes graffiti in a stall, O.K., you’re under Arrest.

A person gets caught with a Marijuana cigarette, you’re under Arrest.”


Sources: NY Times, Youtube

Obama & Congressional Democrats Eliminating D.C.'s Opportunity Scholarship Program! Why? (School Choice Opposition)

Can someone please explain to me why the Obama Administration & Democrats in Congress are Eliminating D.C.'s Opportunity Scholarship Program?

The Program was established to assist Minority Students from Low Income homes to attend Private Schools as a Fast Track to College.

The Program has a Very Successful Track Record so why are Pres. Obama & Congressional Democrats Eliminating it?

And NO!
This is NOT being done by the GOP!

Democrats were still in Control (Both Chambers) when the decisions to cut this very Effective Educational Program to help Low Income, Minority Students was made.

I'll wait for a Logical Explanation.

That is, if anyone still Cares about the Future of Low Income, Minority Students!




D.C. children left in the lurch


THE NONPROFIT that administers the District’s program of federally funded school vouchers held two open houses to solicit interest from low-income families for the upcoming school year. The response was overwhelming; nearly 1,200 new applications were received. Most applicants are likely to end up disappointed because of a misguided decision by the Obama administration to effectively deny new students access to the successful program.

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) met last week with Education Secretary Arne Duncan to urge him to lift what they see as an artificial cap on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

The popular program, now in its eighth year, allows children from low-income families to attend private schools with federally funded vouchers of up to $12,000 annually.

The cap of 1,615 students is well below the number of students previously accommodated by the program (1,903 in 2007-2008, for example) and has meant that new students aren’t being admitted.

Not only does that close the door to better schools for students most in need, but it would also make it impossible for researchers to conduct the congressionally mandated evaluation of the program.

Patrick Wolf, an investigator for the Institute for Education Sciences who has done past studies of the program, told congressional staff that a credible study could not be done without the addition of several hundred new students.

The administration insists that a cap is necessary because it’s unclear whether the program will be funded next year; funds must be held in reserve to ensure the continuation of scholarships for currently enrolled students. It’s a rich argument, since any uncertainty about funding is entirely due to administration actions.

As Mr. Boehner wrote on a blog Tuesday, it was President Obama who “inexplicably” zeroed out funding for the program in his budget proposal, a decision in direct contradiction to a law he signed last year that authorized full funding for vouchers, along with monies for D.C. charter and traditional public schools. That legislation contains no cap on enrollment.

Mr. Boehner has made clear that Congress will provide the funds for this program, but because the group in charge of the program is now being forced to abide by the artificial cap, many students will unnecessarily be deprived of scholarships. In other words, when the money becomes available, it will be too late.

Now is the time that families are making decisions about schools for the fall. Unless Mr. Obama and Mr. Duncan are intent on denying hundreds of underprivileged D.C. students the chance for a quality education, they should work with Mr. Boehner to ensure the uninterrupted continuation of this important program.


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Sources: Heritage Foundation, McClatchy Newspapers, Washington Post, Youtube, Google Maps

Condolezza Rice & Joel Klein: "Education Reform Is Necessary For Our National Security"

Condoleezza Rice on Education: American Dream on Verge of Collapse


America's national security and the upward mobility the country was built upon could collapse if the education system isn't rapidly improved, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Tuesday.

"If you look at why [Americans] are here or why their parents are here or their grandparents are here, someone believed that in the United States of America, if you worked hard, you could have a better life. That's what set us apart," she told a group at the Council on Foreign Relations. "It's fragile, and we have to make sure that's [still] true. If it ever becomes not true because the education system can't deliver it, then there's no hope of rebuilding it."

Rice and former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein co-chaired a task force that looked into the relationship between education reform and America's national security. American students have fallen into the second tier of achievement when compared to international competitors such as China, South Korea, and many European countries. That failure threatens America's economic future, its physical safety, ability to protect cyber assets, awareness of other cultures, and the country's sense of unity, the report warns.

The task force said America should throw its support behind and expand the Common Core State Standards—benchmarks in English and math that have been adopted by all but five states—to other subjects; provide more school choice to students, so they are not stuck in "dropout factories" that graduate a low percentage of students; and launch a "National Security Readiness Audit" that would determine whether students are learning national security skills such as foreign languages and computer programming.

According to the report, America's educational system is "not adequately preparing its citizens to protect America or its national interests." The Department of Defense estimates that 75 percent of young Americans are not eligible to serve in the military because they didn't graduate from high school, are obese, or have criminal records. "Among recent high school graduates who are eligible to apply, 30 percent score too low on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery to be recruited."

At the Council on Foreign Relations event, Klein said that the country's fading education system is threatening America's identity. If the education system fails, there's no Plan B, he said.

"If people don't believe they can get a fair shake with education, then I think the [national] cohesion erodes," he added.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

OCCUPY EDUCATION!!!

Time is running out for REAL Education Reform in America or Europe & China will leave Our students in the dust!
EFFECTIVE EDUCATION REFORM IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT THE COOPERATION OF TEACHER UNIONS.


22 Steps to 21st Century Education Reform:


1) REPEAL No Child Left Behind! Please!

2) Enact REAL Educational Reform within the U.S. Dept of Education & the National Public School System. This includes the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Dept of Education.

3) Link the Montessori Pre-School Experience (4 year-olds) to Direct Student Achievement via Hiring Montessori Certified Teachers to teach in Pre-Schools housed on Public School & Charter School Campuses.

4) Eliminate the current Student Testing System & Focus on Subject Matter Content & Student Creativity to Enhance Critical Thinking Skills.

5) Increase Teacher Pay based on a combination of Qualifications, Job Performance, Merit & Student Achievement NOT just Student Test Scores.

6) Require Parents & Guardians to Partner with Teachers and Schools.

7) Bail Out the Federal Student Loan Program just like Congress Bailed Out Wall Street & STOP Funding For-Profit Schools & Colleges which are Nothing more than Student Loan Mills!

8) Allow More Charter Schools to Operate & Provide More Funding those Schools.

9) Ensure that EVERY Public School & Charter School is Asbestos-Free, Up to Date, has a 21st Century Technology Lab & a Community Garden. Especially Schools in Urban Communities. Offer FREE Technology lessons for Parents at School Technology Labs.

10) HIRE & Train Qualified People from Corporate America to Work as Teachers, using the "Teach For America" Business Model.

11) Focus More on Reading, Science, Math, Art and...... Music.

Art & Music Must remain a part of Student Achievement because Creativity helps Children to thrive Academically.

12) Don't Allow Teachers to Teach the SAME Grade Level past 3 Years as to prevent Stagnation & Complacency.
Don't Allow Principals to remain at the SAME Schools past 5 Years.

13) Allow BAD, Poor Performing, Complacent Teachers to be FIRED!

Recruit & HIRE More Part - time & Full -time Instructional Teacher Assistants for Grades: Kindergarten - 8th.

14) Encourage Local & Global Businesses to Form Partnerships with or Adopt EACH Public & Charter School in Every City & Community. Especially those located in Urban & Rural Communities.

15) Bail Out Student Loan Debt which has now reached $1 Trillion Dollars, just like the Bail Out Wall Street received.

16) Integrate Student Appropriate Entrepreneurship & Tech Start Up Programs into Student Curriculum beginning in the Kindergarten.

17) Make Student Attendance Mandatory. Hold Parents & Legal Guardians Accountable!

18) Focus on High School Graduation for EVERY Student! Start in Pre-School & Kindergarten.

19) Offer the Federal "Breakfast in the Classroom" Program in ALL Pre-School & Elementary Classrooms. Also Open Food Banks in ALL Public & Charter Schools.

20) "It Takes A Village!" Allow NO Student to FAIL! Drill Student Achievement into Every Teacher, Student, Principal, Parent & Legal Guardian.

21) Open Student Career/ Workforce Programs in ALL High Schools.

22) Help Students who want to enter the Teaching & Medical Profession to obtain College Scholarships & REAL Financial Aid prior to High School Graduation.
OCCUPY EDUCATION!!


Sources: Fox News, Mediaite.com, MSNBC, PBS News, US News, Youtube

Occupy Education Reform! 22 Steps To 21st Century Education Reform

Dr. Michelle Rhee was FIRED for standing up to Teachers' Unions & her strong opinions on 21st Century Education Reform.

While I do still support Labor Unions & Teachers' Unions, I have to side with Michelle Rhee.

She was Right & should NOT have been Fired.

Bad, Ineffective Teachers should NOT be placed on pedestals or lauded as Heroes!

They should be FIRED Quickly!

Especially if they don't want to Change or Improve in their Profession.

Dr. Rhee was NOT afraid to send those Bad, Ineffective Teachers within the District of Columbia Public School System along their lazy way.

Dr. Rhee should have been lauded for her Courage & Vision instead she was Fired from her job as Chancellor, after she Terminated Bad, Ineffective, Lazy Teachers.

Big Mistake!

Since leaving DC's Public School System Dr. Rhee founded "Students First", a Non-Profit organization promoting Teacher Effectiveness & High Student Achievement.

Thus Michelle Rhee's Termination is Washington, DC's Educational Loss.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

OCCUPY EDUCATION!!!

Time is running out for REAL Education Reform in America or Europe & China will leave Our students in the dust!
EFFECTIVE EDUCATION REFORM IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT THE COOPERATION OF TEACHER UNIONS.


22 Steps to 21st Century Education Reform:


1) REPEAL No Child Left Behind! Please!

2) Enact REAL Educational Reform within the U.S. Dept of Education & the National Public School System. This includes the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Dept of Education.

3) Link the Montessori Pre-School Experience (4 year-olds) to Direct Student Achievement via Hiring Montessori Certified Teachers to teach in Pre-Schools housed on Public School & Charter School Campuses.

4) Eliminate the current Student Testing System & Focus on Subject Matter Content & Student Creativity to Enhance Critical Thinking Skills.

5) Increase Teacher Pay based on a combination of Qualifications, Job Performance, Merit & Student Achievement NOT just Student Test Scores.

6) Require Parents & Guardians to Partner with Teachers and Schools.

7) Bail Out the Federal Student Loan Program just like Congress Bailed Out Wall Street & STOP Funding For-Profit Schools & Colleges which are Nothing more than Student Loan Mills!

8) Allow More Charter Schools to Operate & Provide More Funding those Schools.

9) Ensure that EVERY Public School & Charter School is Asbestos-Free, Up to Date, has a 21st Century Technology Lab & a Community Garden. Especially Schools in Urban Communities. Offer FREE Technology lessons for Parents at School Technology Labs.

10) HIRE & Train Qualified People from Corporate America to Work as Teachers, using the "Teach For America" Business Model.

11) Focus More on Reading, Science, Math, Art and...... Music.

I completely agree with Professor Melissa Harris-Perry. Funding for Art & Music Programs in Public Schools Must remain an important part of Student Achievement because the Arts enhance Creativity which helps Children to thrive Academically.

12) Don't Allow Teachers to Teach the SAME Grade Level past 3 Years as to prevent Stagnation & Complacency.
Don't Allow Principals to remain at the SAME Schools past 5 Years.

13) Allow BAD, Poor Performing, Complacent Teachers to be FIRED!

Recruit & HIRE More Part - time & Full -time Instructional Teacher Assistants for Grades: Kindergarten - 8th.

14) Encourage Local & Global Businesses to Form Partnerships with or Adopt EACH Public & Charter School in Every City & Community. Especially those located in Urban & Rural Communities.

15) Bail Out Student Loan Debt which has now reached $1 Trillion Dollars, just like the Bail Out Wall Street received.

16) Integrate Student Appropriate Entrepreneurship & Tech Start Up Programs into Student Curriculum beginning in the Kindergarten.

17) Make Student Attendance Mandatory. Hold Parents & Legal Guardians Accountable!

18) Focus on High School Graduation for EVERY Student! Start in Pre-School & Kindergarten.

19) Offer the Federal "Breakfast in the Classroom" Program in ALL Pre-School & Elementary Classrooms. Also Open Food Banks in ALL Public & Charter Schools.

20) "It Takes A Village!" Allow NO Student to FAIL! Drill Student Achievement into Every Teacher, Student, Principal, Parent & Legal Guardian.

21) Open Student Career/ Workforce Programs in ALL High Schools.

22) Help Students who want to enter the Teaching & Medical Profession to obtain College Scholarships & REAL Financial Aid prior to High School Graduation.
OCCUPY EDUCATION!!




Condoleezza Rice on Education: American Dream on Verge of Collapse


America's national security and the upward mobility the country was built upon could collapse if the education system isn't rapidly improved, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Tuesday.

"If you look at why [Americans] are here or why their parents are here or their grandparents are here, someone believed that in the United States of America, if you worked hard, you could have a better life. That's what set us apart," she told a group at the Council on Foreign Relations. "It's fragile, and we have to make sure that's [still] true. If it ever becomes not true because the education system can't deliver it, then there's no hope of rebuilding it."

Rice and former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein co-chaired a task force that looked into the relationship between education reform and America's national security. American students have fallen into the second tier of achievement when compared to international competitors such as China, South Korea, and many European countries. That failure threatens America's economic future, its physical safety, ability to protect cyber assets, awareness of other cultures, and the country's sense of unity, the report warns.

The task force said America should throw its support behind and expand the Common Core State Standards—benchmarks in English and math that have been adopted by all but five states—to other subjects; provide more school choice to students, so they are not stuck in "dropout factories" that graduate a low percentage of students; and launch a "National Security Readiness Audit" that would determine whether students are learning national security skills such as foreign languages and computer programming.

According to the report, America's educational system is "not adequately preparing its citizens to protect America or its national interests." The Department of Defense estimates that 75 percent of young Americans are not eligible to serve in the military because they didn't graduate from high school, are obese, or have criminal records. "Among recent high school graduates who are eligible to apply, 30 percent score too low on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery to be recruited."

At the Council on Foreign Relations event, Klein said that the country's fading education system is threatening America's identity. If the education system fails, there's no Plan B, he said.

"If people don't believe they can get a fair shake with education, then I think the [national] cohesion erodes," he added.


Sources: MSNBC, NY Daily News, PBS News, TIME, US News, Washington Post, Youtube

Demetrius Hewlin's Killer T.J. Lane Charged As A Juvenile; Where's The Justice?

Monday February 27, 2012, T.J. Lane a 17-Year-Old WHITE Student, walked into Chardon High School in Ohio & Shot 6 Students.
3 of those Students have since Died from their Injuries.

One of the Deceased Students, Demetrius Hewlin was a BLACK Teen whose parents donated his Organs after he was declared Brain-Dead as a result of his Injuries.

Today T.J. was Charged as a Juvenile on 6 Counts, including 3 Counts of Aggravated Murder.

School Officials & Juvenile Court Officials are also trying to Mitigate his actions by stating he was Bullied & Depressed.

Aggravated Murder! Juvenile Court! Depressed!

Can You Believe It?

So this Kid Shoots Up a School, Murders 3 Fellow Students In COLD-BLOOD & Yet He Is ONLY Charged With Aggravated Murder In Juvenile Court.

If ALL of the Injured & Murdered Students were WHITE, I can assure you T.J. Lane would have been SHOT on the Spot by Law Enforcement Authorities upon response.

NOT Shot to Death but Shot to Disable him.

Afterwards he would have Immediately been Charged as an Adult on 3 Counts of 1st Degree Murder!

NOT Aggravated Murder!

Please Understand I am NOT using this post to Invoke Anger, however I am Angry.
This situation proves that there are still are 2 Levels of Justice in America.
White vs BLACK!

Dear God Let Us Pray.









T.J. Lane Charged as Juvenile in deadly Ohio shooting


A teenager was charged Thursday with killing three students in a school shooting, the first step in proceedings that could see him charged as an adult and facing the possibility of life without parole if convicted.

The charges filed in Geauga County juvenile court accuse T.J. Lane, 17, of killing three students and wounding two others in the shooting Monday morning at Chardon High School, about 30 miles east of Cleveland.

He is charged with three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder and one count of felonious assault.

Students say the gunman was chased from a cafeteria by an assistant football coach, Frank Hall, who has been praised as a hero. Hall spoke shortly after the charges were filed and said he wants the victims' families to know he was with their children and wiped away their tears.

"I don't know why this happened," he said. "I only wish I could have done more. I'm not a hero. I'm just a football coach and a study hall teacher." The emergency responders at the scene were the real heroes, he said.

No motive has been determined. Prosecutor David Joyce has said that victims were selected at random and that Lane is someone "who's not well."

Children convicted of juvenile crimes in Ohio are typically behind bars only until they turn 21 in the most serious cases. But Joyce has already said he plans to charge Lane as an adult, meaning he could face life in prison without parole if convicted of similar adult charges.

Minors are not eligible for the death penalty in Ohio, whether they are convicted as juveniles or adults.

Lane, who attends an alternative school for students who haven't done well in traditional schools, admitted taking a .22-caliber pistol and a knife to Chardon High and firing 10 shots at a group of students sitting at a cafeteria table Monday morning, Joyce said.

Records from Lane's juvenile court files show that in 2009 he was charged with assaulting his uncle, John Breuning, CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports. Authorities said "TJ also jumped on John ... put him in a choke hold."

Other court documents show a troubled family life. His father, Thomas J. Lane Jr., was charged with domestic violence, assault, kidnapping and theft and served time in jail. And mother Sarah A. Nolan was charged with domestic violence in 1995 and convicted of disorderly conduct.

The Tribune-Review in Pittsburgh reported that Lane's aunt, Heather Lane, said earlier by email that her family is "weeping and praying" for Chardon. She says they're grateful for people who have prayed for them and urged the public to continue praying for the victims.

Killed were Demetrius Hewlin, 16, Russell King Jr., 17, and Daniel Parmertor, 16. The motive for the shooting is unclear, though Joyce has appeared to rule out theories involving bullying or drug-dealing.

Hewlin attended Chardon High. King and Parmertor were students at a vocational school and were waiting in the Chardon High cafeteria for their daily bus when they were shot.

Parmertor had just gotten his first job at a bowling alley and couldn't stop talking about how excited he was to pick up his first paycheck later this week, his parents said.

Two other students were wounded. Nick Walczak remains in serious condition. An 18-year-old girl was released from the hospital Tuesday.

Lane was a normal boy who excelled in school and played outside often with his sister, building snow hills and skateboarding, according to Steve Sawczak, a family friend who's a pastor and has worked with troubled children.

He said he never would have allowed his own grandchildren to play nearby if he thought anything was wrong with Lane.



Mother of Ohio school shooting victim Demetrius Hewlin says she forgives suspected gunman TJ Lane

The mother of Ohio school shooting victim Demetrius Hewlin says she forgives alleged gunman TJ Lane for fatally shooting her son.

Prosecutors have until Thursday to bring charges against Lane, who's suspected of going on a shooting rampage at Chardon High School that killed three students and injured two others.

When asked what she would say to the suspected shooter, Demetrius' mother Phyllis Fergueson told ABC News yesterday, "I forgive him because, a lot of times, they don't know what they're doing. That's all I'd say."

"I taught Demetrius not to live in the past, to live in today and forgiveness is divine. You have to forgive everything. God's grace is new each and every day," she said. "Until you've walked in another person's shoes, you don't know what made him come to this point."

A prosecutor has said Lane, who is in custody, will probably be charged with three counts of aggravated murder and other offenses. Prosecutors are expected to ask that he be tried as an adult.


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Sources: AP, CBS News, CNN, Facebook, Pittsburg Live, Tribune Review, Youtube, Google Maps

South Carolina Public School Students Failing End-Of-Grade Tests! 60% Of All Students!

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Sources: Fox News, Youtube, Google Maps

South Carolina's S.A.T. Scores Plummet! Segregation & Discrimination In Education!

Average S.C. SAT score drops by 7 points

S.C. high school students' SAT scores dropped last year, but their performance on college-level Advanced Placement course exams improved.

That's according to new data released today by the S.C. Department of Education.

The average score of S.C. graduating seniors taking the SAT, a test that gauges college readiness, is 1,436 -- down seven points from the previous year. That compares with the national average score of 1,500 -- down six points.

Broken down by test sections, S.C. seniors scored 482 on the critical reading portion of the test, 490 in math and 464 in writing. The national average in those sections is 497 on reading, 514 on math, and 489 on writing.

State Superintendent of Education Mick Zais cited as a particular concern the state’s lagging scores in critical reading and writing.

“Like the other college admission test ACT, the SAT is not a measure of school effectiveness,” Zais said in a statement. “However, within the student population taking the SAT is another data point confirming a troubling trend: there is a wide reading gap between South Carolina and the nation.

“Addressing the reading gap in elementary school must be our top priority because reading is fundamental to everything else in a student’s education,” said Zais, a Republican elected last November. “If students cannot read, they will not succeed in school. To accomplish this goal, we must transform education from a one-size-fits-all system to one that delivers a personalized and customized education to each student.”

SAT scores for individual high schools and school districts were not made available today by the College Review Board, which oversees the SAT, the state Education Department said.

The state’s high school students fared better on Advanced Placement exams. Through AP courses, and the accompanying exams that demonstrate mastery of the course material, students earn college credit while still in high school. Since 1984, South Carolina has paid for AP instructional materials, paid students’ test fees and offered specialized training for teachers.

Every student enrolled in an AP course is required to take the exam.

The percentage of S.C. students receiving a passing score of 3, 4, or 5 on their AP exam increased by 10.3 percent and a total increase of 32.5 percent over the past five years. A 5 is the top score a student can receive.

“While AP scores are not a good indicator of school performance, the success of these individual students is a worthy accomplishment,” Zais said. “The students, their parents, and their teachers deserve all the credit for these gains.

“By taking advantage of the opportunities AP exams present, students can cut future costs associated with continuing their education,” Zais said. “These courses offer students college-level rigor without the price tag of college tuition.”


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Sources: The State, Youtube, Google Maps

Obama's Math Invasion! He Wants Students To Become Math & Science Experts!

How to Fix Our Math Education

THERE is widespread alarm in the United States about the state of our math education. The anxiety can be traced to the poor performance of American students on various international tests, and it is now embodied in George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, which requires public school students to pass standardized math tests by the year 2014 and punishes their schools or their teachers if they do not.

All this worry, however, is based on the assumption that there is a single established body of mathematical skills that everyone needs to know to be prepared for 21st-century careers. This assumption is wrong. The truth is that different sets of math skills are useful for different careers, and our math education should be changed to reflect this fact.

Today, American high schools offer a sequence of algebra, geometry, more algebra, pre-calculus and calculus (or a “reform” version in which these topics are interwoven). This has been codified by the Common Core State Standards, recently adopted by more than 40 states. This highly abstract curriculum is simply not the best way to prepare a vast majority of high school students for life.

For instance, how often do most adults encounter a situation in which they need to solve a quadratic equation? Do they need to know what constitutes a “group of transformations” or a “complex number”? Of course professional mathematicians, physicists and engineers need to know all this, but most citizens would be better served by studying how mortgages are priced, how computers are programmed and how the statistical results of a medical trial are to be understood.

A math curriculum that focused on real-life problems would still expose students to the abstract tools of mathematics, especially the manipulation of unknown quantities. But there is a world of difference between teaching “pure” math, with no context, and teaching relevant problems that will lead students to appreciate how a mathematical formula models and clarifies real-world situations. The former is how algebra courses currently proceed — introducing the mysterious variable x, which many students struggle to understand. By contrast, a contextual approach, in the style of all working scientists, would introduce formulas using abbreviations for simple quantities — for instance, Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2, where E stands for energy, m for mass and c for the speed of light.

Imagine replacing the sequence of algebra, geometry and calculus with a sequence of finance, data and basic engineering. In the finance course, students would learn the exponential function, use formulas in spreadsheets and study the budgets of people, companies and governments. In the data course, students would gather their own data sets and learn how, in fields as diverse as sports and medicine, larger samples give better estimates of averages. In the basic engineering course, students would learn the workings of engines, sound waves, TV signals and computers. Science and math were originally discovered together, and they are best learned together now.

Traditionalists will object that the standard curriculum teaches valuable abstract reasoning, even if the specific skills acquired are not immediately useful in later life. A generation ago, traditionalists were also arguing that studying Latin, though it had no practical application, helped students develop unique linguistic skills. We believe that studying applied math, like learning living languages, provides both useable knowledge and abstract skills.

In math, what we need is “quantitative literacy,” the ability to make quantitative connections whenever life requires (as when we are confronted with conflicting medical test results but need to decide whether to undergo a further procedure) and “mathematical modeling,” the ability to move practically between everyday problems and mathematical formulations (as when we decide whether it is better to buy or lease a new car).

Parents, state education boards and colleges have a real choice. The traditional high school math sequence is not the only road to mathematical competence. It is true that our students’ proficiency, measured by traditional standards, has fallen behind that of other countries’ students, but we believe that the best way for the United States to compete globally is to strive for universal quantitative literacy: teaching topics that make sense to all students and can be used by them throughout their lives.

It is through real-life applications that mathematics emerged in the past, has flourished for centuries and connects to our culture now.


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Sources: NY Times, Youtube, Google Maps

Educational Discrimination Still A Problem In The South! Federal Funds & Segregation

A Century Of Racial Segregation In Education 1849-1950

After the Abolition of slavery in the United States, three Constitutional amendments were passed to grant newly freed African Americans legal status: the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Fourteenth provided citizenship, and the Fifteenth guaranteed the right to vote. In spite of these amendments and civil rights acts to enforce the amendments, between 1873 and 1883 the Supreme Court handed down a series of decisions that virtually nullified the work of Congress during Reconstruction.


Regarded by many as second-class citizens, blacks were separated from whites by law and by private action in transportation, public accommodations, recreational facilities, prisons, armed forces, and schools in both Northern and Southern states. In 1896 the Supreme Court sanctioned legal separation of the races by its ruling in H.A. Plessy v. J.H. Ferguson, which held that separate but equal facilities did not violate the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment.

Beginning in 1909, a small group of activists organized and founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). They waged a long struggle to eliminate racial discrimination and segregation from American life. By the middle of the twentieth century their focus was on legal challenges to public-school segregation. Two major victories before the Supreme Court in 1950 led the NAACP toward a direct assault on Plessy and the so-called "separate-but-equal" doctrine.



Imprisoned for Teaching Free Blacks

The prohibition of education for African Americans had deep roots in American history. According to the 1847 Virginia Criminal Code: "Any white person who shall assemble with slaves, [or] free negroes . . . for the purpose of instructing them to read or write, . . .shall be punished by confinement in the jail . . . and by fine .

. ." Under this code, Margaret Douglass, of Norfolk, Virginia, a former slaveholder, was arrested, imprisoned, and fined when authorities discovered that she was teaching "free colored children" of the Christ's Church Sunday school to read and write. In her defense, Mrs. Douglass noted that she was not an abolitionist, and did not engage in undermining the institutions of the South.

Upholding School Segregation: The Roberts Case

Five-year-old Sara Roberts was forced to walk past several white schools to reach the "colored" primary school. Her father, Benjamin Roberts, a black printer, filed a lawsuit against the city of Boston to integrate public schools.

In 1849 reformer and future U.S. Senator Charles Sumner represented Roberts and challenged school segregation in the Boston court. Separate schools for African Americans, he argued, in effect branded "a whole race with the stigma of inferiority and degradation." The Massachusetts Supreme Court, however, upheld segregation in a widely cited ruling. Influential Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw noted that Boston's separate schools possessed substantially equal facilities and declared that school integration would only increase racial prejudice.

The Fourteenth Amendment

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed the Federal Government to protect the civil rights of individuals, including African Americans, against state encroachment, was ratified in 1868.

The amendment also defined national citizenship and extended it to former slaves freed by the Civil War. This 1866 letter to Supreme Court Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase is from Associate Justice Stephen J. Field, whose judicial opinions would significantly influence subsequent interpretations of the amendment. Field termed the amendment, which had recently been passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification, "just what we need" and said it showed that "the American people do not intend to give up all that they have gained by the war."

Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896

By the time Homer A. Plessy, an octoroon (one-eighth Negro blood), who lived in New Orleans, challenged that city's right to segregate public transportation by riding in a Whites Only rail car, the constitutional amendments, passed after the Civil War and written to provide protections and rights for Negro citizens, had been eroded. The Louisiana state courts ruled against Plessy, and his subsequent appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court was denied in 1896. The impact of Plessy was to relegate blacks to second-class citizenship. They were separated from whites by law and by private action in transportation, public accommodations, recreational facilities, churches, cemeteries and school in both Northern and Southern states.

The National Negro Committee, 1909

In 1908 socialist William English Walling published an exposé about a bloody race riot in Springfield, Illinois. As a result, in January 1909, an interracial group assembled in his apartment to discuss proposals for an organization that would advocate the civil and political rights of African Americans. The group decided to issue a "call" for a national conference on the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, February 12, 1909. As a result of the "call," the National Negro Conference was held in New York on May 31 and June 1, 1909.

At the second annual meeting, May 12, 1910, the Committee adopted the formal name of the organization--the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Among the "first and immediate steps" listed at the bottom of this founding document is "That there be equal educational opportunities for all and in all the States, and that public school expenditure be the same for Negro and white child."

The Pink Franklin Case

The NAACP undertook its first major legal case in 1910 by defending Pink Franklin, a black South Carolina sharecropper accused of murder. When Franklin left his employer after receiving an advance on his wages, a warrant was sworn for his arrest under an invalid state law. Armed policemen arrived at Franklin's cabin before dawn to serve the warrant without stating their purpose and a gun battle ensued, killing one officer. Franklin was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death. The NAACP interceded, and Franklin's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Eventually, he was set free in 1919. In this letter to Mary White Ovington, Albert Pillsbury, an attorney and NAACP supporter, recommends the appeal to South Carolina Governor Martin F. Ansel.

Buchanan v. Warley

The NAACP sought out cases that infringed on the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments in order to set legal precedents and ultimately secure the constitutional rights of African Americans. An early victory was Buchanan v. Warley, a case involving residential segregation in Louisville, Kentucky. Moorfield Storey, the NAACP's first president and a constitutional attorney, argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court in April 1917. The Court reversed the decision of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, ruling that the Louisville ordinance violated the Fourteenth Amendment.

As a result of the ruling, whites resorted to private restrictive covenants, in which property owners agreed to sell or rent to whites only. The Supreme Court declared this practice unconstitutional in Shelley v. Kraemer (1948). Buchanan v. Warley was cited in the Brown decision to challenge the legality of segregated public schools.


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Sources: Library Of Congress, Youtube, Google Maps